Peres: U.S. pressure on Syria 'only the beginning'
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Monday that he believed that recent U.S. pressure on Syria to abandon its hosting of terrorist organizations was "only the beginning."
Reacting to Israeli media accounts that Israel had made fresh overtures to Syria, Peres told Israel Radio that the reports were "more sensationalist than profound." He declined to respond directly to a Ma'ariv daily report Monday that a planned meeting between Peres and Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass was cancelled at the last minute.
Of U.S. efforts to press Syria to stop its tacit sponsorship of organizations linked to terrorism, Peres said "Syria is still living under the illusion that there is a difference between 'good terrorism' and 'bad terrorism.' This is nonsense. But there is not one institution in the world that will agree that for the sake of some goal one may murder youths, women, and children. This is not terrorism, this is murder. These are not, as people once said, guerrillas or the resistance, this is murder."
"America has begun to pressure Syria, and I don't believe that this is over yet. This is only the beginning. And it may take some time until Syria feels under pressure and begins to understand that this is a new world."
Peres turned aside reports that Israel and Syria were close to renewing peace talks. He said Syria was demanding that any talks be undertaken from the point at which they were halted during the premiership of Ehud Barak. Only "when we accept all their pre-conditions" would Damascus agree to a renewal of the talks.
Sources close to previous rounds of the talks have said that Syria was close to agreeing to a full peace treaty in exchange for return of the Golan Heights, captured from Damascus in the 1967 Six Day War. But the negotiations ultimately foundered, apparently in a dispute over some 200 meters of land on the shore of the Kinneret.
"Our position is very clear. We are saying that we are prepared to enter into negatiations without pre-conditions on the basis of (UN Security Council Resolutions) 242 and 338." The two resolutions call for return of occupied territory. Arabs maintain that the wording of the resolutions calls for return of all captured land, while Israel insists that the text only mandates the return of some of the land.
Peres: Palestinians no longer have terror option
Peres added that in the world climate following the September 11 attacks, "the Palestinians no longer have any option to return to terrorism, because they are more dependent on the world than perhaps any other body. Both for financial aid and for political aid."
"It's clear that we live in a triangle, not just as a couple. Not only we and the Palestinians, but the Palestinians, we, and the entire world," Peres said.
Regarding EU curbs against Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad groups, he said, "Even the European world has decided that it will no longer compromise with terrorism."
Peres spoke after meeting Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to discuss the foreign minister's contacts with senior Palestinian official Abu Ala. The talks have aroused controversy, with Israeli hawks demanding Peres be sacked for conducting "peace negotiations under fire" contrary to cabinet pledges to refrain from all such talks.
But Peres said that "We have decided that we are conducting negotiations toward a cease-fire, talks which I call 'rich negotiations', because cease-fire talks certainly have a diplomatic element, and not only a military element."
Peres said the world's attitude meant that, "Those who say the Palestinians haven't changed, should look at the world and understand that the world has changed. We live in a completely different world." |
